Print this pageHow standards have helped to make Old Trafford a theatre of dreams for football fans
Traditionally, the match day experience for a football supporter with a disability ranged from difficult to downright unpleasant. Seating areas that offered poor views and exposure to the elements were common, while gaining access to grounds and their facilities could prove quite an ordeal.
Phil Downs, Manchester United's disability liaison officer (DLO) and chairman of the National Association of Disabled Supporters (NADS), explains how standards used at Old Trafford have helped to:
revolutionise match days for supporters with disabilities
give more supporters with disabilities access to live football
influence the design and build of other stadia
Setting standards at Old Trafford
Facilities for supporters with disabilities at Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium are widely regarded as the best in the country, setting standards for other clubs to follow. Over the past 15 years, the club has progressively improved its provisions and now provides more than 100 wheelchair accessible spaces with clear sightlines for supporters with disabilities.
Phil says:
"Most clubs now aspire to what we have achieved. The club takes the issue very seriously - to the point of being the first to formally appoint a disability liaison officer in 1995. The club has made sure that, as DLO, from an early stage, I've been fully involved in modifications to the stadium.
"Within the framework provided by BS 8300:2001 - the standard that concerns the design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of people with disabilities - I've been responsible for working with architects to make sure the changes the club makes take account of the needs of our disabled supporters.
"There are 20 places for people with a visual impairment [plus 20 places for helpers], who can also listen to commentary from Manchester United Radio. In addition, the club has 21 places for the ambulatory disabled, all with adjacent helper seats."
Old Trafford contains an exclusive area with specially designed catering facilities, a dedicated entrance to the ground and a guaranteed parking-permit scheme for supporters with disabilities in an area within metres of the stadium.
Phil says:
"There is no doubt that implementing standards has enabled more people with disabilities to enjoy their match day experience. What we have found is that when there are good facilities, people will come. The more facilities we've added to Old Trafford, the more oversubscribed we've become."
As DLO, Phil looks after the interests of supporters who use wheelchairs and have ambulatory issues, visual impairments and learning difficulties, covering both the club's home and away matches.
Along with the structural changes to the stadium to improve access and sightlines, the club provides an audio description of games via a radio channel for fans with visual impairments. And the Ability Suite - an exclusive area on match days for supporters with disabilities, developed by the club in association with Vodafone - is used during the week for community and social activities. Costing £150,000 to build, the facility opened in 2003.
Best practice through accessible stadia guidelines
As chairman of NADS, Phil also plays a major role in promoting standards for accessibility in the design and build of new stadia.
Following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, recommendations regarding stadia were made in the Taylor Report [1990]. A Football Task Force report and NADS brought these together with the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to create the Accessible Stadia guidelines - a proposed 'gold standard' for new builds.
The guidelines brought together practical experience and formal standards, including BS83000:2001 (which covers building design with disability access in mind), the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds 1997 (known as the 'Green Guide'), and the Disability Rights Commission code.
The resulting Accessible Stadia guidelines have been accepted as the new rule book, to the extent that they were formally integrated into new building regulations in 2004. The guidelines cover transport and stadium access, information and signage, parking, ticketing and entrances, movement and circulation and accessibility of facilities.
Phil says:
"We wanted to standardise what was to be regarded as 'acceptable facilities', drawing together a variety of standards and best practice. Before that, there wasn't official qualification of what was good and what wasn't.
"We were able to chip away at it over a number of years. There was a genuine will among clubs to make a difference to disability issues, but they were moving in different directions. The guidelines themselves - and their subsequent introduction into law - have made a significant difference to new stadium builds."
